Analysis for Salerni-Koryttseva (Australian Open)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine will face Argentine Maria Emilia Salerni in the first round. Koryttseva has never cracked into the top 100 sofar but we think it is just a matter of time. Her biggest career highlight so far is a surprising run to the final of the 2007 Sunfeast Open held in Kolkata in September 2007. En route to her appearance in the final, she beat Monique Adamczak, Vania King, who had defeated the number one seed Marion Bartoli in the previous round, Tatiana Poutchek and Anne Keothavong. Her run came to an end at the hands of Maria Kirilenko in the final. As well as this run, she has won two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On the ITF Tour, where she has played a vast majority of her career, she has won five singles titles and massive sixteen doubles titles. She is a pretty talented player with comparatively solid serve and good movement which make her dangerous on all surfaces. On the other hand, Maria Emilia Salerni is a defensive-minded player who reached her career best results on clay. She is a two-time former junior Grand Slam champion, winning Wimbledon and U.S. Open in 2000, as well as finishing runner-up at Roland Garros. Both players have been performing well this year so far (Salerni has a match record of 3-2 and Koryttseva 2-1) and both of them are talented players already capable to make good results at WTA tour level but the fast surface makes the Ukrainian player a slight favourite for us.